Lonely Planet Explores Thrilling Road Trips With Epic Drives of the World

Buckle up for a lifetime of memorable road trips this August, with the publication of Lonely Planet’s Epic Drives of the World.

This beautifully illustrated hardcover book is the second instalment in Lonely Planet’s Epic series (following last year’s best-selling Epic Bike Rides of the World). It features 50 classic driving routes across the world (from Argentina to Zambia), and 200 ideas for great drives – ranging from easy-going cruises to back-country adventures.

Australia is represented by six driving routes highlighted in the chapters “The Great Ocean Road”, “A Short Hop from Hobart to Queenstown”, “Across The Kimberley: The Gibb River Road”, “Following the Captain Cook Highway”, “The Great Alpine Road”, and “The Track: Alice Springs to Darwin”.

“This book is intended to offer fresh inspiration for your next road trip,” Lonely Planet says. “We have routes written and ridden by motorcyclists and even a tour of Northern California by electric vehicle. A few of these drives take a day but others can be enjoyed over a weekend, a week or more.”

“What they have in common,” Lonely Planet continues, “is that the road tripper is always independent. Want to take a detour (and we suggest some gems) or stay an extra day? Go right ahead. It’s all about the journey. Driving a car need not be a mode of transport that insulates you from your surroundings: if you stop regularly, explore, encounter local people and their culture, you’ll have as rich and rewarding an experience as you could hope for.”

How to Use Lonely Planet’s Epic Drives of the World

The main stories in each regional chapter feature first-hand accounts of fantastic drives in that continent. Each includes a fact-box to start the planning of a trip – when is the best time of year, how to get there, where to stay. But beyond that, these stories should spark other ideas. We’ve started that process with the ‘more like this’ section following each story, which offers other ideas along a similar theme, not necessarily on the same continent. Drives are colour coded according to difficulty, which takes into account not just how long, remote and challenging they are but the logistics and local conditions. The index collects different types of drive for a variety of interests.

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